


Dancing in the Dark

by Strange_Archivist



Series: Everything, Every Things [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-31 00:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12664923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strange_Archivist/pseuds/Strange_Archivist
Summary: El's feelings about the Snowball.You can't start a fire without a spark. Or in her case, sparkles.





	Dancing in the Dark

All this time, she's been looking forward to this dance, she feels silly for not thinking of learning how to actually dance. Everything she's heard and read and seen on TV about dances says of course there's dancing, but seemed to stress what to wear more. Especially for girls.

Nancy comes to the cabin with armfuls of makeup and dresses for El to look through.

“Pretty,” she can't help saying, as she handles each garment delicately.

Nancy smiles. “You really should try the ones you like on, to see how they fit. Most will probably be a bit too big on you.”

El nods, picking up a handful of dresses, and taking them to her room to change, remembering, “privacy. Get it?”

She's eventually coaxed into coming out of her room to show Nancy and Hopper how each new dress looks, her curly hair quickly getting rumpled due to her frequent changes.

She tries on a pretty blue dress she likes, but thinks might be too big. But Nancy helps her cinch in the waist with a large pink belt and suddenly-

“Well look at you,” Hopper says, ruffling her already ruffled hair.

“Pretty?”

“The prettiest.”

Nancy grins at her while El examines her reflection in the mirror again.

She pats her ruffled hair and looks back to the older girl.

“My hair,” she says. “Can you make it pretty too?”

“You have great hair,” Nancy insists. “But I can show you how to wear it a different way if you want.”

El nods, eagerly.

After a quick makeup and hair tutorial, Nancy leaves, and for the next week, El practices what she taught her, one night even getting Hopper to put on some lipstick and eyeshadow.

So the night of the dance she feels ready. She dresses carefully, applies the makeup and styles her hair the way she learned, and she feels pretty. Pretty and ready, if a bit nervous.

Then she gets to the dance. And sees other kids dancing. And she feels silly for not thinking of actually learning how to dance.

There's a brief moment when she considers running out, it's intimidating being around so many people her own age, and what if she doesn't actually look pretty? What if Hopper and Nancy were just, what was the phrase? _Just trying to be nice?_

But then her eyes scan more of the room and land on him and she doesn't think she could leave if she wanted to. Which she doesn't, not anymore.

The way he's looking at her, like he did the day she put on the pink dress, only, different, makes her feel sparkly inside, like when he'd kissed her. And she thinks she must be staring at him too because she can hardly believe they're both really here, and there's something so appealing, so endearing and warm about his lanky frame and clumsy gait.

“You look beautiful,” he says, and her insides glow brighter than any of the decorations in the gym. She smiles. “Do you want to dance?”

“I don't know how,” she admits, looking around at all the other kids, wondering how she could have forgotten something so integral to, well, _dances_.

“That's ok,” Mike says with a familiar smile, the one she'd rarely seen on his face during those 353 days of checking on him. “I don't either. Do you wanna figure it out?”

She nods.

She's held his hand plenty of times, but when he takes hers to lead her into the crowd, it still makes her feel sparkly. She wonders, idly for a moment if that feeling will ever go away.

She doesn't have time to wonder long, because soon he's stopped them and he's facing her again. There's a look on his face that's a mix of his kind smile, the look he gave her when she walked in, and something like determination. The sparkles inside her chest start to glow again.

He takes her other hand and places both her hands on his shoulders. “Like that, yeah,” he says, the lower tone of his voice somehow more pronounced to her in those few words. It makes her shiver in a way she never thought possible before. _A good way_.

He places both his hands on either side of her waist and then they're both swaying to the music.

It's easier than she'd thought it would be. With her hands on his shoulders, she can feel the soft fabric of his jacket, the edges of his hair. His hands on her waist have made her jittery, but a good sort of jittery.

He's looking at her again with _that look_ and she's looking back because it fills up the hole of loneliness that opened up inside her those 353 days. And then she has just enough time to wonder if he's going to kiss her before she's leaning in too and all the sparkles and jitteries and shivers inside her burst.

She has to catch her breath for a moment when he pulls away and she rests her forehead on his to compose herself again. She feels his grin against her and she smiles too, wondering how it's possible to feel so happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed :) I'm starting to run out of ideas (gasp!) but love playing in this world so suggestions are welcome for me!


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